SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The Third Annual Forum of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani (AUIS) concluded with a panel discussing the future of Iraq and shifting power dynamics in the Middle East due to the ongoing war with the Islamic State (ISIS).
In a panel titled “Reflections: Beyond the Present,” speakers shared their reflections of rebuilding efforts following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the 2011 Arab Spring, the ongoing Syrian civil war, and the ISIS assault and occupation of portions of Iraq and Syria which began last year.
Panelist Neil Quilliam, acting head of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House, warned that even if ISIS is finally defeated, the region’s refugee crisis following the turmoil, combined with the unrest in Syria, would be a strain on the region.
“That volume, that high number of refugees, Jordan, Lebanon, [Iraq], will have these numbers of refugees for a long time to come,” he said, adding that “local governments are affected more than the central governments.”
Panelist Azzam Alwash, the founder of Nature Iraq and an AUIS board member, said he had been honored to be part of the forum, but then turned to the topics of ISIS and Kurdish self-determination.
“Daesh and us have a common goal,” he said using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. “We both want to rebuild the Middle East; they want to build the caliphate, we want to build democracy.”
He added that as someone from southern Iraq, he had begun to hear even southern Iraqis mull Kurdish independence.
Panel moderator and Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari closed the panel by saying he wished representatives of Iran and Turkey had been invited to speak, but overall called the project a success.
He repeated calls for separation and stability in Kurdistan. Citing the former Czechoslovakia as an example, he said the only countries that ever separate peacefully are the ones that do so by consensus, not violence.
“There are many problems in the Levant, but also many opportunities, but these opportunities need leadership, these opportunities need democracy,” he said.
“Mosul can be liberated, Tikrit can be liberated, but without finding a political peace to fix that, without ensuring all security forces are legitimate in the eyes of the population… this is the big challenge facing us and facing the new government,” Zebari concluded.
The AUIS board member Alwash brought the event back around to the students, and the future.
"What I see here at this event is the future. In the East, we've been arguing and killing each other for events that happened 1,400 years ago. But, if anything, the West is about dreaming about the future and hope for the future. I say to the students at this event: if you learn anything here it's dream about the future and believe in that, or create your own future.”
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